Our History

The history of the Kenan Institute Asia dates back to a chance encounter during the 1920s, when King Prajadhipok of Thailand and Carl Grey, a member of the prosperous Kenan family met at a gift shop near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. With their long history of philanthropy and public service, the Kenan family has been active in Thailand ever since.

Kenan was established in 1996 as an independent, locally registered organization with the belief that long-term development can best be achieved through free enterprise mechanisms, boundary-spanning partnerships, and practical expertise. With former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun serving as founding chairperson, Kenan began by fostering development partnerships between U.S. and Thai organizations.

Today, Kenan is a thriving organization employing over 80 full-time staff at our offices in Bangkok, Thailand and Hanoi, Vietnam. While Kenan’s focus has shifted over the years, in response to Southeast Asia’s transformations, as well as natural and economic disasters, Kenan maintains the same commitment to empowering people with the knowledge, technology and skills necessary for a sustainable future. Currently, Kenan is partnering with a wide variety of organizations, including the Thailand Ministry of Education, the Thailand Ministry of Science and Technology, USAID, the US Department of State, Boeing, the Citi Foundation, Chevron, and Coca-Cola, to achieve its vision.

Our History

1901

Early Beginnings

Henry M. Flagler & Mary Lily KenanWilliam R. Kenan

In 1901 Mary Lily Kenan married Henry M. Flagler, the co-founder and guiding force behind the great Standard Oil Company. The Kenan family had originally migrated from Ireland to North Carolina in 1730, where they became strong supporters of education, and helped to found The University of North Carolina. When Mary Lily Kenan died in 1917, she left the bulk of her fortune to her brother, William, who continued his family’s legacy by creating the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, which laid a foundation for generations to come.

A chance encounter in Arizona…

1920

1920s

The history of the Kenan Institute Asia dates back to a chance encounter during the 1920s, when King Prajadhipok of Thailand and Carl Grey, a member of the Kenan family, met in a gift shop in Arizona. The Kenan family has been active in Thailand ever since.

1990

Origins: U.S. – Thailand Development Partnership

Kenan’s founding was a response to Thailand’s incredible development as a market-based economy between 1970 and 1990. Rapid growth changed Thailand’s view of itself from an under-developed country in need of outside assistance to one not only capable of helping itself, but able to assist its neighbors as well. This view was strongly supported by key Thai technocrats involved in national economic and social development led by Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun.

Mr. Anand Panyarachun

The director of the USAID mission in Thailand in 1990, Mr. Tom Reese saw that Thailand’s rapid development had created both opportunities for more market-based U.S. services and technology, as well as the need for solutions to problems created by such accelerated development. These problems included environmental pollution, uneven development, the emergence of new and re-emerging public health threats, such as HIV-AIDS and drug resistant malaria, and an inadequate education system.

Mr. Tom Resse

At the same time, Thailand’s rapid business growth and rising foreign investment sparked interest among American business schools, including the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. John Kasarda, the director of the school’s Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise (KIPE), was particularly interested in getting the university involved in the business boom in Asia and saw Thailand as an attractive place to start.

Dr. John Kasarda

A sustainable, non-profit organization to help with the next phase of development…

1993

1993

USAID’s interest in leaving behind, as part of its legacy, a sustainable, non-profit organization to help with the next phase of development work led to the design of a USAID-funded project called the US- Thailand Development Partnership (US-TDP). KIPE, Chulalongkorn University, and the Brooker Group, a Thai consulting company, won the competitive bid for US-TDP and signed a cooperative agreement with USAID in December 1993 for a five-year program budgeted at $8 million. The main program objectives were to:

Demonstrate new, more private sector-oriented ways of assisting development through support for US-Thai partnerships.

Develop an institutional arrangement that would provide ways to continue this sort of assistance after the closure of the USAID bilateral mission in Thailand.

1996

Kenan Institute Asia Established

Kenan is established in 1996 with the support of the Thai Government, USAID, the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust and the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

1997

1997

Mr. William ItohMr. Pichet Soontornpipit

Khun Anand agreed to serve as the founding chairman and helped recruit a high-level Thai and American board of trustees. Representing the two governments were Mr. William Itoh, the US Ambassador to Thailand, and Mr. Pichet Soontornpipit, director-general of Thailand’s Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation. Kenan began work along the lines set by the US-TDP – fostering Thai-US partnerships on projects that included recycling steel slag, producing low-cost HIV diagnostic kits, designing a waste water treatment plant, and generating electricity from landfill gas. Numerous training projects built capacity in public health, environmental management, municipal management and information technology.

1998

1998-1999

1998 One of Kenan’s first major initiatives, the American Corporations for Thailand (ACT) was a multiyear program in which Kenan worked with American companies to retrain people left unemployed by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis

1999 Kenan implements its first regional project introducing American environmental technology to Vietnam.

2000

2000-2002

2000 Kenan was selected by USAID to manage a program of economic recovery and reform called the Accelerating Economic Recovery in Asia (AERA).